Tag: Natacha Yarbrough

Three years into our campaign for self-management and ownership and we have achieved our first goal: Demolition of Midtown is off the table! We have had both verbal and written agreement from both Mercy Housing and the Mayor’s Office of Housing (MOH) that they are no longer planning to demolish any of Midtown’s six buildings. This is because last year, head of the MOH Kate Hartley was forced to agree that there would be no demolition without majority tenant support.

Midtown Park Apartments is a 139-unit development for low and moderate income households in the Western Addition community. It has been the subject of a lot of political fighting and accusations recently. It is also our home. In the last few years we have watched individuals and organizations who don’t live at Midtown and have never been active in the community spread misinformation and work against the interests of residents.

San Francisco United Against Trump acknowledges that the issues faced by minority groups, particularly immigrants and people of color, under our current administration, are not only an integral part of our city’s history, but of nearly EVERY major American city’s history. Our organization aims to combat President Trump’s regressive and destructive policies, as well as fight injustice at local levels of government.

The cover story of this week’s San Francisco Weekly is the saga of Midtown Park Apartments that faces a struggle for its very existence in light of dubious actions and activities by San Francisco Housing Director Olson Lee and his staff. The City, which owns the Midtown property, has neglected to make millions of dollars worth of repairs over the past several decades despite hiring property managers to maintain the property, collect rents and enforce terms of tenancy.

On Monday, Feb. 3, residents of Midtown Park Apartments, joined by civil rights nonprofit Brightline Defense, legal services provider AIDS Legal Referral Panel and over 50 supporters, filed the biggest rent control petition in the history of the City and County of San Francisco. The petition requests protection against unlawful rent increases and evictions for 139 low- and moderate-income Western Addition households.